GCU hosts Purple Classic


Grand Canyon Lopes (2-9)	vs	Drake Bulldogs (5-5)	Utah State Aggies (6-4)	CSU Northridge Matadors (7-3)
		Friday, Feb. 21 5 p.m.	Friday, Feb. 21 7:30 p.m.	Saturday, Feb. 23 11:30 a.m
Game Notes		Live Video Live Stats	Live Video Live Stats	Live Video Live Stats

The Grand Canyon softball team hosts the GCU Purple Classic from Friday through Sunday. Drake, Utah State and CSU Northridge will all be participating in this weekend's tournament. The Lopes will play their first game on Friday against Drake at 5 p.m. in GCU Softball Stadium.

Live stats and video will all be provided on gculopes.com.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

FRESHMEN STAND OUT: The Lopes have four freshman making consistent starts day in and day out. Mickey Covarrubio and Jaiden Reid have been GCU's everyday center and right fielders. Kristin Fifield has bounced between second base and shortstop while Olivia Zufelt has been the Lopes' designated player regularly. Covarrubio has shown she deserves a spot in the lineup as she is hitting a team-best .394 and hit the walk-off home run that lifted the Lopes past the Leathernecks in Game 1 of the Getterman Classic.
PITCHING RETURNS: The Lopes return all four of their pitchers from the 2019 season as well as adding a freshman into the mix. Junior Ryan Denhart was named the WAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year and looks to build upon last season.
WALK-OFF WINS: Both of the Lopes wins this season have come in the bottom of the seventh. Zufelt was the hero in GCU's first win over New Mexico. Against Western Illinois, Covarrubio hit a home run over the right-field wall to win it for the Lopes.

SCOUTING

Drake has a .500 record after competing in the UNI Dome and Stanford tournaments. The Bulldogs opened the season at the UNI Dome Tournament, where they went 3-2, defeating South Dakota, South Dakota State and DePaul. Most recently, Drake went to the Stanford Tournament, where they went 2-3, defeating Hofstra twice and falling to Stanford. In 2019. the Bulldogs won The Valley Conference and traveled to the Minnesota NCAA Regional.

Utah State opened the season at the Titan Classic in Fullerton, California, where they went 1-4 with a win against Loyola Marymount. Since then, the Aggies improved to 6-4 after picking up five wins at the Golden State Classic. In 2019, the Aggies hit .275 to score 226 runs on 341 hits. They hit 48 home runs and 54 doubles. On the rubber, the Utah State pitching staff gave up 271 runs on 381 hits with an ERA of 5.62.

CSU Northridge comes into the Purple Classic with a record of 7-3 after competing in the Rebel Kickoff and the Libby Matson Classic. The Matadors won three games at the Rebel Kickoff and then picked up four more at their home tournament. In 2019, the Matadors hit .257 with 203 runs on 355 hits. They also totaled 33 home runs and 77 doubles on the season. As a pitching staff, CSUN had a 4.29 ERA while giving up 375 hits, 27 home runs and 71 doubles and striking out 284 batters.

LAST TIME OUT

GCU and Drake met last season in Norman, Oklahoma, where the Lopes fell 3-1. Lexy Coons and Brianna Aguilar threw in the loss to the Bulldogs.
The Lopes and Aggies have met in 2014 and 2016 with GCU winning both matchups.
CSUN and GCU have met seven times since 2014 with the Matadors leading the series 5-2. Most recently, the Lopes defeated the Matadors on March 10, 2016, in a neutral-site game.

WHAT'S NEXT

GCU will travel to Fullerton, California, to participate in the Judy Garman Classic, starting on Feb. 28.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Brianna Aguilar

Lexy Coons

Mickey Covarrubio

Ryan Denhart

Kristin Fifield

Jaiden Reid

Olivia Zufelt

Grand Canyon University Athletics